ACTUAL CONDITIONS OF THE ARCTIC SMALL GLACIERS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE PUTORANA PLATEAU)

• Main Authors: Kovalenko, N.V., Popovnin, V.V., Uspenskaya, E.I., Gubanov, A.S.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Инфинити 2021
• Subjects: small glaciers; Arctic; Subarctic; climate change; degradation of glaciers; forest fires; Verkhoyansk; Chukotka; Climate change
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.34660/inf.2021.56.70.041; http://naukarus.ru/public_html/wp-content/uploads/2021/Scientific research of the SCO countries - December 8 - Part 2.pdf#page=129

Glaciation of the Arctic territories is mainly represented by small forms of glaciation and covers an area of several tens of thousands of km². In the Arctic, Subarctic, small glaciers are mainly distributed in the Urals, the Putorana plateau, in the Byrranga mountains, in the northern part of the Verkhoyansk ridge, on the Chukotka highlands, etc., located at absolute heights from 400 to 1400 m. They are located below the climatic snow line, and their existence is determined mainly by oroclimatic factors. For all such areas within the territory of the former USSR, in the early 1970s, complete catalogs of glaciers were compiled, containing information on the main morphological characteristics of the identified glaciological objects. True, the content of the catalogs was based mainly on the analysis of aerial photographs, and only a small part of the glaciers was covered by route studies (by the way, only occasional ones). Therefore, there was no question and could not go about any detailed glaciological characterization. It is in this context that we should consider glaciological expeditions conducted by the field team of the Faculty of Geography of MSU on the Putorana plateau in August 2002, 2003, 2004, 2019 [Kovalenko, 2011].